Acupuncture Makes the Front Page of WebMD.com
First, it appeared in a leading news magazine. Now, acupuncture has made the front page of one of the most popular health sites on the World Wide Web.
On Jan. 16, 2003, the editors of WebMD.com posted a feature story entitled "Acupuncture Entering the Mainstream." The article, written by a well-known medical journalist and reviewed by a medical doctor, presented a brief review of a recent article on children and acupuncture, along with background information on the conditions acupuncture can treat. Also interviewed in the article was David S. Kiefer, a medical doctor at the University of Arizona. Dr. Kiefer said he used acupuncture for sinus problems and allergies, and got "good results" from treatment.
An accompanying article, "Providing the Alternative," discussed the number of traditional insurance carriers that are adding complementary and alternative medicine into their benefit plans. According to the article, insurers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York have all added programs that offer discounts for acupuncture, herbal supplements and other alternative therapies in recent years. This trend is expected to increase as more studies are published that document the effectiveness of these procedures.
WebMD.com attracts approximately 15 million unique viewers to its site each month, making it one of the most frequented health sites on the Web. A statement on WebMD.com says that the site is "the leading provider of online information, educational services and communities for physicians and consumers."
Hawaii Acupuncture and Oriental Medical School Receives ACAOM Accreditation
The Institute of Clinical Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Honolulu, Hawaii, has been granted full accreditation by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. The institute, which was founded in 1996, is the third school in Hawaii to receive ACAOM accreditation, after the Tai Hsuan Foundation and the Traditional Chinese Medical College of Hawaii.
Receiving full accreditation allows the ICAOM to develop a financial aid program for students to apply for federal grants and guaranteed student loans. It also allows students who complete their training to sit for the national acupuncture exam offered by the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
The ICAOM's degree program consists of 2,490 hours of academic and clinical education. Students who complete the program will receive a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine degree, which qualifies them to become entry-level practitioners of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. For more information, visit ICAOM's Web site at www.orientalmedschool.com.
Preserving Traditional Chinese Medicine for Future Generations
China's Ministry of Health has announced that it will spend nine million yuan (approximately $1.1 million U.S.) over the next three years to encourage senior practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine to pass their knowledge and wisdom on to younger therapists. The announcement, made on December 31, marks the third time in the past decade that China has launched such a teaching program.
According to She Jing, vice minister of health and director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, about 600 senior experts have been chosen to train 942 younger practitioners. The training will last for three years, with at least three half-days used for clinical study per week of training. The administration will perform strict checks on all participants throughout the program to ensure the quality of the education the younger therapists receive.
Approximately 1,300 practitioners have been trained in traditional Chinese medicine through the two previous teaching programs.
"Best of the West 2002" Winners Announced
Last year, Traditional Chinese Medicine World magazine held a survey designed to identify acupuncture and Oriental medicine schools and colleges that did the best job of preserving the art and science of traditional Chinese medicine in the United States. The survey examined more than 70 traditional Chinese medicine schools in the U.S. in a variety of categories, including the quality of each school's faculty, curriculum and clinical training.
The results of the survey, dubbed "Best of the West 2002," were published in a recent issue of TCM World. The winning schools are:
Overall Winners - Faculty, Curriculum and Clinical Training
- American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, San Francisco, California
- Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Portland, Oregon
- Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Austin, Texas
Small/New School
- American Academy of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Roseville, Minnesota
Individual Category Winners
Faculty
- Academy of Oriental Medicine, Austin, Texas
- National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, Oregon
- National College of Oriental Medicine, Orlando, Florida
Curriculum
- American Academy of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Roseville, Minnesota
- Atlantic Institute of Oriental Medicine, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- International Institute of Chinese Medicine, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Clinical Training
- Academy of Oriental Medicine, Austin, Texas
- Dallas College of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Dallas, Texas
- Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, California
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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